By Jeff Erlichman

Your Virtual Desktop will travel with you, accessible on whatever device you are using – desktop, laptop, smartphone or PDA.

Will the Virtual Desktop capabilities be as prevalent in a hardware device in five years as a Wi-Fi card is in a hardware device today?

The answer is “yes”.  For older hardware, becoming “virtually aware” will extend its lifecycle and power. For new computers, that means buying a chip set that makes the computer “virtually aware” from the outset, so that it can act as a local OS and be able to operate a Virtual Desktop scenario hosted at the data center.

The result is lower cost and higher application performance on the user side. The reason is the chip set and the OS (Vista, XP etc.) are “virtually aware” and are able to comprehend what is going on in the virtual
environment.

That’s why Citrix’s Tom Simmons sees growth over the next five years with more desktops accessing virtual servers and virtual storage. And it is not only desktops that will access these virtual environments said Simmons, it is every type of computing device and smart phone, wherever there is broadband access.


Since the applications and data stay on the server in the data center,“I’m just showing a picture, an image. I’m not pulling data over the wire, the bandwidth requirements are less than they would be in a fat client implementation with interactive programs like Outlook,” explained Simmons.

What Is Virtual Desktop Technology?
Rather than software applications and data stored on individual PCs, in a Virtual Desktop world, these capabilities would be delivered to the user from central servers housed in an agency Data Center that sits behind the secure agency firewall.

This method of software provisioning dramatically improves access to a standard set of office automation tools, provides simplified support processes, and improves hardware and software management.

Virtually any kind of end-user device can be used to remotely access a virtualized PC desktop, including thin clients, notebook PCs and even a PDA. Once a desktop is virtualized, it becomes accessible over any suitable network connection, on any device with similar characteristics.

There are four (4) distinct classes of desktop virtualization today:
1. Single Remote Desktop – in this model, a single desktop PC is accessed remotely across a network connection using remote PC access software, such as Go To My PC, WebEx, PCAnywhere, Windows Remote Desktop, VNC and other similar methods.
2. Shared Desktops – in this model, a multi-user server PC environment from Citrix, Ericom Software and Terminal Services is used to host many users who all “share” a common PC desktop environment together on a server machine.
3.Virtual Machine Desktops – in this model, virtual machine technology is used to host multiple instances of a standard, single-user desktop PC operating system (e.g., Windows XP) on a server machine.
4. Physical PC Blade Desktops – in this model, individual “client blade” PCs are used to host multiple independent user sessions, each one running on its own physical PC blade.

Each of these virtualized desktop models has their specific advantages and limitations.  Since desktop virtualization involves running the PC desktop experience across various networks, a number of important security and performance issues arise, which require careful attention and planning. To do that you must assess your needs.